ANTI LGBT+ PREACHER SPEAKING IN WELSH GOVERNMENT OWNED CENTRE

Plaid Leader Adam Price asks Welsh Government to condemn views of anti LGBT preacher Franklin Graham, not platform homophobia

Plaid Cymru has called on the Welsh Government to condemn the Anti-LBGTQ+ views of a speaker being platformed at the Welsh Government-owned International Conference Centre in Newport.

Plaid Cymru Leader, Adam Price challenged the First Minister in the Senedd on International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, on why it is allowing an event organised by anti-LGBTQ+ speaker, Franklin Graham, to be hosted in a Welsh Government owned location.

Mr Price – who himself is openly gay – said the decision to platform Mr Graham sent the wrong message that “homophobia and hate are somehow still acceptable”.

The First Minister conceded that he regretted that the event was going ahead and that the views of the organiser do not reflect the views of the Welsh Government.

The ICC at Newport is at least half owned by the Welsh Government yet is hosting a large free to attend event for the anti LGBTQ+ pastor.

Mr Graham, a friend of former US President Trump, has notoriously made many staggering homophobic statements, including accusing LGBT+ activists of “trying to cram down America’s throat the lie that homosexuality is OK”, that anti-discrimination laws would mean that “children will be at risk to sexual predators and perverts”, that same-sex marriage was orchestrated by Satan, and that LGBT+ people are to blame for a “moral 9/11”. Mr Graham is an advocate for the abusive practice of conversion therapy and has previously praised Vladimir Putin for his cruel anti-gay laws, applauding his leadership for “protecting children from any homosexual agenda or propaganda”.

Back in February 2020, Franklin Graham was forced to cancel his eight-stop UK tour after being dropped by venues in protest his beliefs, yet the event scheduled for this week at the ICC Newport is still set to go ahead.

Raising the issue in the Senedd, Adam Price MS said:

“The Wales International Convention Centre is this month hosting the televangelist Franklin Graham who has called gay men and women ‘the Enemy’ who are here to ‘devour our nation’, who has even praised Vladimir Putin for his homophobic policies.

“Now Mr Graham is entitled to his beliefs, but he is not surely entitled to be provided with a stage to air them at a Convention Centre that is 50% owned by the Welsh Government? Does that not send out the wrong message from Wales – not of peace and good will – but one that says that homophobia and hate are somehow still acceptable?”

The First Minister, Mark Drakeford responded by saying:

“I regret the fact that the event to which Adam Price referred is going ahead, but the decision is not one for the Welsh Government. We do not run that centre, and it’s for those who are responsible for it to make those decisions. I’m sorry to see a person of those views being given a platform to express them here in Wales, and they absolutely do not reflect anything that the Welsh Government would be prepared to endorse or sanction.”